Researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and six universities in China have identified a gene that regulates the concentration of oxalate in spinach, responsible for the gritty-chalky mouthfeel called spinach teeth. The team also found genes to help the plant combat downy mildew. The study compared the genomes of cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and two of its wild relatives (S. turkestanica and S. tetranda) to identify genes linked to traits of interest to plant breeders, farmers, and consumers.

The Australian Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has received a license application (DIR 188) from Nuseed Pty. Ltd. to conduct a field trial of genetically modified (GM) canola and Indian mustard with altered oil content and herbicide tolerance.The trial is proposed to take place between November 2022 and December 2027, at up to 20 trial sites per year with a maximum area of 150 hectares per year. The trial sites are located in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is supporting scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), the University of Florida, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service to develop plants with natural tolerance to HLB. UCR geneticist Danelle Seymour and plant pathologist Philippe Rolshausen will examine 350 citrus hybrids developed and grown by project collaborators in Florida. All trees in the set are already infected with HLB, yet they live longer, are healthier, and yield more fruit than their infected relatives.

The gene editing market continues to expand in recent years and is projected to go beyond US$19.45 billion by 2028. This is according to the gene editing market report by type and global forecast released by Adroit Market Research. According to the report, CRISPR has been the primary driver of the impressive growth of the gene editing market because of its precision in editing and cite-specific modifications.

Chinese agriculture ministry official reports remarkable results in the pilot testing of GM soybeans and maize, which mark a historical milestone in the industrialization of these GM foods in China. The results show that both GM crops are high-yielding and exhibited excellent resistance to insect pests and herbicides. This is according to Liu Peilei, Director of the Agricultural GMO Safety Management Division of the Science and Technology Education Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Three apparently unrelated findings led to the discovery of the temperature receptors: a better understanding of pain-sensing, the molecular nature of the channels in charge of touch and proprioception, and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine bestowed to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian. In 1953, state-of-the-art research in temperature sensing concluded that temperature afferent fibers came in two flavors, “cold” and “warm,” characterized by discharging by a lowering in temperature and an increase in temperature, respectively

One cannot refute the contribution women provide to the agriculture sector where they constitute 43% of the agricultural labor force. 79% of these women depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. In addition to the agricultural activities which span from production, post-harvest, marketing, and agro-processing activities, women are also actively involved in other unpaid domestic activities.

For another year, millions of small-scale farmers have been bearing the brunt of  Climate Change and COVID19. Despite the challenges, they have been using everything from boats to goats to build resilience. IFAD was there to support them

CGIAR urged global leaders today to ensure the 500 million smallholder farmers responsible for up to a third of global food production can adapt to climate change-induced loss and damage while curbing their greenhouse gas emissions. Innovations are needed that can both reduce the contribution of global agriculture to climate change, and adapt to its increasingly evident consequences while also supporting livelihoods, nutrition and equality.

In PNAS, Xu et al. (1) report that a member of the Argonaute family of proteins, Argonaute 1 (AGO1), is an essential actor in the gene control of flowering. In Arabidopsis thaliana, flowering is inhibited when the floral repressor gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is expressed. Therefore, repression of FLC expression is necessary to trigger flowering. Repressors of FLC expression include evolutionary conserved RNA binding proteins such as FCA, FPA, and FLK as well as factors that regulate messenger RNA (mRNA) processing and chromatin structure.